When cognitive psychiatrists study behavioural anomalies, they share the conviction that a better understanding of what causes them can also shed light on the mechanisms underlying typical cognitive functioning. In section two, drawing on the phenomenological literature, we explore the compensating and transformative power of delusions in the context of major disruptions affecting the basic relationship between the self and the lived world. In section one, drawing on the philosophical literature informed by cognitive psychology, our focus will be on how delusions can be considered meaningful and even adaptive in spite of representing significant failures of rationality and self-knowledge. Further, we make a case for the view that a more comprehensive and balanced analysis of delusions, not just as beliefs but also as ways of reconceptualising reality and the self, can be relevant to the question about what makes life meaningful. Delusions are also meaningful for interpreters engaging with the delusional reports, because delusions may well contribute to explanations and predictions of the speakers’ behaviour in context. We argue that delusions can be meaningful for the people making delusional reports, because delusions often make sense of people’s experiences. In this paper, we challenge such conceptions of clinical delusions. Indeed, based on outdated philosophical accounts of belief, some psychologists have even ventured to define delusional reports as “empty speech acts”, suggesting that the content of delusions gives us no information about the person making the report or the world around them (e.g., Berrios, 1991). Other philosophers have claimed that delusions cannot be belief states because ‘belief’ is a folk-psychological notion and delusions do not fit the framework of folk-psychology by which agents interpret and predict one another (e.g., Murphy, 2012). For instance, delusions are to some extent “fixed”, whereas we expect beliefs to be responsive to counterevidence and delusions are not always manifest in behaviour, whereas we wexpect beliefs to drive action (for a review of anti-doxastic arguments, see Bortolotti & Miyazono, 2015). In particular, here we consider delusions reported by people who have attracted a diagnosis of schizophrenia or psychotic illnesses.Ĭlinical delusions are regarded as paradigmatic instances of pathological beliefs, and some philosophers have even challenged their doxastic status, arguing that delusions may sound like beliefs but are not genuine instances of belief, because they do not share the functional profile of beliefs. In this paper, we focus on the phenomenon of clinical delusion and address two issues from the perspectives of cognitive psychology and phenomenology: (1) Are delusions meaningful? (2) Can delusions contribute to the sense that one’s life is meaningful? Clinical delusions are unusual beliefs that are thought to be symptomatic of mental disorders. Acknowledging that delusions have meaning and can also give meaning to people’s lives has implications for our understanding of psychotic symptoms and for addressing the stigma associated with psychiatric conditions. Rather, they can help make sense of one’s unusual experiences and in some circumstances even support one’s endeavours, albeit temporarily and imperfectly. Delusions are not incomprehensible representations of reality. We review some of the empirical and philosophical literature relevant to two claims about delusions and meaning: (1) delusions are meaningful, despite being described as irrational and implausible beliefs (2) some delusions can also enhance the sense that one’s life is meaningful, supporting agency and creativity in some circumstances. Here we investigate the relationship between delusions and meaning from a philosophical perspective, integrating arguments and evidence from cognitive psychology and phenomenological psychopathology. ![]() ![]() Delusions are often portrayed as paradigmatic instances of incomprehensibility and meaninglessness.
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